Meet our contributors

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 Ricki is the founder and CEO of Touch, the Black Breast Cancer Alliance in Annapolis, MD.  

Ricki Fairley is not the kind of woman who takes no for an answer. So when the marketing executive and mother of two daughters learned that the triple-negative breast cancer she was diagnosed with had spread to her chest wall, she refused to accept the outcome she was told to expect.  

“They said, ‘You’re now metastatic — you have 2 years to live and should start getting your affairs in order,’” she says. “And I told them we had to figure out another plan.”  

Fairley reached out to the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation, who helped her find another doctor for a second opinion. The second physician recommended a rigorous chemotherapy regimen. At the end of treatment, Fairley’s doctors told her she had no evidence of disease.  

Feeling she’d been given a second chance at life, Fairley decided to quit her corporate job, downsize, and dedicate herself to advocating on behalf of other Black women facing breast cancer.  

“I’m a miracle,” she says. “God had a plan for me and left me here to do this work, and I’ve been doing advocacy work ever since. I know that this is my purpose — that’s why I’m still here, because so many people have had triple-negative breast cancer and not survived.” 

 Fairley joined the board of the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation, and through that and other advocacy work, she began to see a trend regarding Black women and often more aggressive and harder to treat triple-negative breast cancers.  

“When you start to look at the numbers, Black women get triple-negative breast cancer at 2.3 times the rate as white women,” she says. “And when you look at the mortality numbers for Black women, we have a 42% higher mortality rate. It’s a different disease for Black women.”  

 Leanne Pero is a breast cancer survivor and founder of Black Women Rising.

After moving out of her family  home at the aged of 13 and going through sexual abuse, she founded her  love of dance and started inspiring young people to make a difference at  the age of 15, when she launched her community-focused dance company  The Movement Factory.  Since then, she has successfully fundraised over  £250,000 to run community dance programs all over the country, reaching  over 500,000 young people in her lifespan. In 2014, Leanne became the  first Community Ambassador for Pineapple Studios. Three years later, in  2017 she became CEO of Pineapple’s first Charity – Pineapple Community.

towards the end of 2016, just 6  months after nursing her mother through her second breast cancer  diagnosis, Leanne was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.  She bravely  underwent a bilateral mastectomy with an immediate reconstruction, as  well as 8 grueling rounds of chemotherapy. Using her platform, Leanne  shared her story to raise cancer awareness amongst young people and the  BAME community. During this time, she found comfort and healing in  talking to other female cancer patients, whom she met on the hospital  wards. What stood out to her was the lack of physical and emotional  support being provided by the NHS, for black cancer patients.

Leanne knew something had to  change. Being the philanthropist that she is, in 2017, she began  arranging informal peer support groups for BAME female cancer patients  and survivors: Black Women Rising was born. Highlights include finding  the world’s first all-black female cancer scars exhibition Black Women  Rising ‘The Untold Cancer Stories’ which had its first exhibition at The  OXO Tower London.  In 2020, despite going through the toughest year  where she questioned whether the charity would survive, Leanne launched a  successful podcast series Black Women Rising ‘Untold Cancer Stories’ as  well as the Black Women Rising Magazine. The first publication of its  kind, the magazine is aimed at empowering women of colour through their  cancer journeys.

Through her work, Leanne has  teamed up with a number of brands on cancer awareness campaigns, such  as; Stella McCartney, Pretty Little Thing, Estee Lauder, GHD, Zalando,  Palmers, Loungewear and Boots. She has also personally modeled for  brands such as Pretty Little Thing, Pineapple, Primark and Next.

 Dr Sigourney Bonner is the founder of Black in Cancer -  a  network aimed at highlighting Black excellence in cancer research. 

Sigourney Bonner is driving change for Black people, who are under-represented in cancer research and over-represented in cancer mortality.

Encouraged by her lecturers, when she graduated from Leeds Sigourney  wanted to progress into medical research. The loss of her aunt to cancer  made her more determined to change lives. 

“Until I started my PhD, I’d never met a Black woman with a PhD,”  says Sigourney, who is now a postdoctoral associate at the Cancer  Research UK Cambridge Institute. “I often felt I was the most qualified  candidate, and yet I was at a disadvantage before I entered the room  because of how I looked.” 

Sigourney worked as a scientist at major pharmaceutical companies  Pfizer and AstraZeneca before starting her PhD in paediatric brain  tumours at Cambridge. Once there, she founded Black in Cancer, an  organisation which helps to make sure the cancer research sector  represents the wider population. 

 Black in Cancer’s pipeline programme helps to increase Black scientists  in the field – from undergraduate mentorship and lab placement schemes,  to distinguished investigator awards for established principal  investigators. They have built partnerships with universities and  research organisations in the UK and the US, created a conference  series, developed a mentorship programme, and helped Black researchers  access over £1.5m of funding.   

The second focus of Black in Cancer sits closest to Sigourney’s  heart: “My aunt didn’t know what kind of breast cancer she had when she  died. I didn’t know either. Black patients don’t always advocate for  themselves or ask the right questions because it’s such an overwhelming  experience.” 

A study by Cancer Research UK and NHS Digital found Black women were  more likely than white women to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer.  Research by the Race Equality Foundation also found Black patients  reported more negative experiences of cancer care than white patients.  “The reasons are complicated. It can be because individuals are  unwilling to take time off to see a GP because of financial  implications. There may be a lack of awareness about warning signs,  embarrassment or a lack of confidence talking about symptoms.